Gaming
History of Gaming The beginning of gaming started on the computer with members of the military-industrial-academic complex and the US nuclear program. Hitting the market in the 1970’s, the members of these programs developed two of the original computer games now known as “Space Invaders” and "Pong”. While these games, and later ones’ such as “Pac Man”, are now accessible at home, they originally emerged as arcade games, played on coin operated machines in the public. Nintendo emerged in 1985, introducing their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Along with this, the company released their well-known game “Super Mario Bro’s”. By 1990 Nintendo’s popularity in the gaming world became evident as they reached gross sales of $500 million USD. It was able to reach this level of popularity as it improved the gaming experience with “dramatically improved pacing, visuals, sound, and dynamism" (pp. 124). In the 1990’s Sega entered into the gaming market with their version of the home video game console, the Genesis. At the time, Sega also introduced the popular game “Sonic the Hedgehog” along with “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Combat”. The 16-bit console further improved the gaming experience as it contained micro processing capabilities, allowing for the creation of larger animated characters, better backgrounds, sounds, and increased game speed. Nintendo fought back with the development of the GameBoy, a portable handheld console that would later send the playing of video games into a new mobile market. In 1994 the world of gaming made a leap for the better with the introduction of Sony’s PlayStation. This development shifted the format in which games were stored, away from cartridges and into CD format. This shift in media storage was later found to be much more cost efficient in both production and distribution. As time progressed, the game hardware industry continued to be dominated by three competitors, Sony with their release of the PlayStation 2 in 1999, Nintendo which released the GameCube in 2001, and Microsoft which introduced the Xbox in late 2001. The early 2000’s were taken over by the development of massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMOGs). This began in 1997 with Ultima Online, which had nearly 250,000 subscribers by 2001. Since then online role playing games such as EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, and The Sims Online have been combined into the growth of MMOGs. Recently, consoles have joined in with the idea of online gaming as Microsoft Xbox Live and Sony PlayStation 3 have had great success in the market. Along with this development was the development of voice chat, and systems such as Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Kinnect. Economics of Gaming •In 1982 the global home sales of video games reached an approximate $3 billion USD. • In 2006, it was estimated that global sales in the game industry reached at least $30 billion USD. •In 2006 the Entertainment Software Alliance (representative of the major gaming companies) estimated a $7.4 billion USD in sales of computer and video game software. Games today are commonly purchased as stand-alone packages and played on consoles which are attached to the TV, and online multiplayer games (MMOGs) accessed on a subscription basis and played on the computer. As of 2005 however, it became evident that video games accounted for the majority of the gaming industry as it was reported to account for over 85% of the game market. However, today we must account for the new growth in the gaming industry with the popularity of gaming on handheld mobile devices such as cell phones. Game Culture Today, games are becoming more and more social. An example of the social aspect to gaming is local area network parties. These parties include multiple gamers coming together in large public spaces and creating a network of computers to play with one another. Likewise, there are many gatherings held around the world where dedicated gamers come together. In addition, it is quite common for communities to be created in the gaming world with multiple players. Some communities, or groups, may consist of people known offline. However, it is not uncommon to find groups consisting of individuals who have never met in person. These groups exist for multiple reasons. Some fight together, while others exist for more social purposes, providing an online family for gamers. These online families give the gamers a sense of belonging, cooperative teamwork, as well as competition. Controversy of Gaming Despite the popularity of games today, there is still much controversy surrounding them. The topic of games can be found at the center of debates regarding the cultural appropriateness of digital content, gender identity, the experience of childhood, and intellectual property. Today, the mainstream portrayal of a gamer is an isolated boy failing to engage in the social world. This could be thought to have started back in the 1990’s with the Genesis, as many criticized Sega’s games for being marketed towards teen boys and being excessively violent. This also leads to the common idea that games are a source of violence and anti-social behaviour amongst young people, especially boys. Another area of criticism in the world of gaming is explained by Bryce and Rutter who found that female game characters are often represented as princess' of wise old women in fantasy games, as objects awaiting male rescuing, or as the fetishized subjects of male dreams in first person shooters. Similarly, some believe a negative of the gaming industry is the marketing of products. This has been an issue since the early years of gaming starting with Nintendo’s brand, Super Mario. When Super Mario was developed it opened the doors to other areas of the market, allowing for the production of television shows, comic books, lunch boxes, t-shirts, and other merchandise. Today the trend persists as games are continuously linked to TV programs and children’s toys, such as Webkinz, a brand of stuffed animals sold in retail stores which are intended to link to the online website. However, there are those who believe games to be of great benefit. For example, some view games to be great educational tools which teach anyone who plays them the ability to operate almost any high tech device. This view rests on the basis that games require players to create hypotheses, solve problems, and develop strategies. In addition, they are thought to require the ability to juggle tasks and evaluate risks quickly in order to make decisions. References Flew, T., & Smith, R. (2011). Games: Technology, industry, culture. (1st Canadian ed.), New media: An introduction (pp. 122-140). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.